What do you want to listen to?

Ambient & Instrumental

Acoustic Indie

I write anthems for epic journeys, nostalgic moments and those dreams you wish would never end.

I write music to create emotion by exploring atmosphere, texture, & repetition.

For as long as I can remember, I've been drawn to music that relies heavily on emotion. As I grew older, I started to experiment with capturing that emotion and bringing it to life through my own music.

Fisher Price Grand Piano

When I was about three years old, my parents gave me this Fisher Price grand piano toy to play with. They began to notice that, instead of banging on it violently (as most kids do), I would play the keys very delicately, as if I was actually trying to play a song. This is when my parents considered the possibility that I may have musical potential.

My first real piano!

When I was six years old, I received my first real piano for Christmas. Up to this point, I had shown quite a bit of interest in the piano, as I would sit next to my grandfather while he played jazz. He taught me “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” the first song I ever learned. Soon after receiving this Casio keyboard, I was enrolled in piano lessons. I didn't stop taking lessons until well into high school.

The Tiny Entertainer

At eleven or twelve years old, I already had a few live gigs under my belt. I had the opportunity to play at my aunt's wedding, as well as a couple of business parties for my dad's company. I even got to play in a shopping mall once!

Time to learn some geetar.

During the first half of my high school career, I bought my first guitar. If you've seen the infomercials featuring Esteban and his beginner's guitar package, then you'll know which guitar I'm talking about. A classical, nylon-strung acoustic guitar and a couple of instructional DVDs arrived in the mail, and I was hooked. I learned my first couple of songs and eventually graduated to a Fender steel-string acoustic guitar and a couple of others after that.

Joined a rock-n-roll band.

When I was a senior in high school, I was recruited to join my first rock band, The Anatomy of Error, as a keyboardist. We played some combination of alternative rock and pop-punk. I was given the nickname, “Hands.” We practiced at least once a week and I caught on quickly, although I had no idea how to play any other style of music than the new age piano music I was trained on.

We only played one show as a band, until our drummer quit and the band quickly fell apart. The show was at a tiny venue in Tempe, AZ called, Neckbeards. During the set, our drummer's monitor died and the band fell out of sync. It was a pretty rough show, but I will never forget it.

Going solo.

2006 and 2007 were extremely productive years in my musical career. At the very beginning of 2006, I finished writing my first song, featuring acoustic guitar and vocals. It was a terribly cliché and angst-driven song about an ex-girlfriend that I wrote in a tuning similar to what Dashboard Confessional used during that time. Shortly after, I invested in some cheap recording gear to get the song recorded. This was just the beginning.

Throughout the first half of 2006, I continued writing music for acoustic guitar and clean vocals under the alias, Louder Than Words. I quickly upgraded my recording gear & my guitar, and finished recording my first 9-track EP in July '06. I had 100 copies of the EP — complete with album artwork designed by me — printed, and set up an online order form to buy the album. Not wasting any time, I proceeded to play three small live shows in Phoenix before heading back to college in September '06.

I continued writing new music and playing solo shows through the summer of '07.

A fresh perspective.

College shaped my music taste & style into what it is today. It was in 2008 when I began to fall in love with ambient, electronic, and post-rock music for its sonic depth, atmosphere, and portrayal of raw emotion. I began experimenting with MIDI software instruments and my electric guitar in order to replicate what I was hearing. It irrevocably changed the way I listen to music. My perspective changed from lyrical meaning and acoustic clarity to a more advanced understanding of layering, looping, and texture in order to create the emotions that I was so attracted to in music. Music became less about speaking my mind and more about illustrating a feeling.

Today, I write instrumental & ambient music under the alias, Jerabek. The name is a nostalgic nod to my childhood elementary school; a memory that fades more every day. I continue to experiment with new methods of creating palpable atmosphere and emotion in my songs. A full-length album is tenatively being planned for release in some form.